Preparing for my First Handmade Show 4

I meant to post about what was happening in preparation for the event more often….

Obviously, I didn’t really take in how much work I actually needed to do. Now here we are just a few days from the event and I am not even half ready.

Then on top of not even being half ready I found out that the second show I agreed to do just 6 days after the Oak Learners’ Artisan Market is going to be a crazy busy one and that I will need at least double the inventory I was planning for the first one.

Cue Panic!

These next few days will be busy, busy, busy! I am not sure if I’m looking forward to the days after both events are done more than the events themselves now.

On To Budget

As I have said in a previous post, I failed at the $0 budget. However, I have borrowed money from my other businesses and my mother to get some things.

My mother was lovely enough to cover my new business cards. But, right after I ordered them I realized that I had forgotten to put on them what I actually do. So I will keep that in mind when these 500 are gone and I am ordering more.

I also had my best friend, Susie, buy a few more display items but she says that they are a gift to support me on my first show. Best friends are awesome (at least mine is!)

So what have you made?

I have been somewhat secretive about what I’ve made for the event. This is in part because I’m behind in my making quota and don’t really know, and also because as my first show I want to wow my friends even more than I want to wow the customers.

Setbacks.

Naturally, I have also had setbacks.

I had mentioned previously that I ordered some supplies. Well, silly me, I didn’t order the right silver and ended up having to take time to string and seal some bright, metallic, silver beads that I already had in stock. This took way too long but at least they are done.

Other setbacks are just about having other businesses, work, meetings, and so on. So not so much setbacks as in life. And now that it’s the end of the month I have end/beginning of month tasks to complete while still making all of my stock. I am sure that I won’t be getting much sleep until December 3rd when the event is over.

Then I will have 5 days to prepare for the next event before I can really crash and recuperate.

Almost There!

I guess this would then be the home stretch. I am looking forward to sleep but I also can’t wait to see the reactions to my table and products.

What did you learn from your first event? Post in the comments and I will be sure to post after the event to see what I learned.